The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Okay, so I'm having trouble finding folk recs on the internet that aren't infested with folk rock and indie folk, so if I just wanted a top 10 of folk albums to check out for a beginner then what should I listen to? I'm cool with folk rock albums being included, but **** off with indie folk.

I'm sure you know about Simon and Garfunkel but if you only have a peripheral familiarity with them, definitely check out their live albums. I'll just give you amazing folk albums and see where it goes from there.

1. Gary Higgins - Red Hash
2. Richard Dawson - Nothing Important
3. Joni Mitchell - Count and Spark
4. Kath Bloom and Loren Connors - Restless Faithful Desparate
5. The Microphones - The Glow Part 2
6. Comus - First Utterance
7. Current 93 - All the Pretty Little Horses
8. Tim Buckley - Goodbye and Hello
9. John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death
10. Sun City Girls - 330,003 Cross Dressers From Beyond the Rig Veda

[Pet_Sounds]

I'll toss in Nick Drake's Pink Moon, Simon and Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and Elliott Smith's Either/Or.

[Lisnaholic]

Two good lists so far, with some familiar/ some new mentions.

If it's all English-language folk, my list goes like this:-

1. Ewan McColl and A.L. Lloyd - Blow Boys Blow
2. Andy Irvine and Paul Brady - Self-titled album
3. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads
4. Dando Shaft - An Evening With...
5. Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall
6. Various, led by Ashley Hutchins - Morris On
7. Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
8. Simon and Garfunkle - Bookends
9. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
10. Steve Earl and the Del McCoury Band - The Mountain
11. Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music

Notes:
+ I dropped some favourites if the artist has already appeared on Neapolitan's or Frownland's list
+ Italics means the music is from the British Isles, if not, it's from North America
+ They are listed in order of folk purity, from #1 (very pure traditional folk) to #11 (counts as folk doesn't it?)

[rostasi]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

11. Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music

Oh hell, yes!

[Lisnaholic]

^ Yes, that is such a great album, and if it weren't for the presumed language restriction, "The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music" would be in my top ten too:-

[Chiomara]

Oh, and I second all of the above folk album recommendations, particularly Erik Darling, Gillian Welch (I think you'd like her a lot, bat), Ry Cooder, John Fahey, and Kath Bloom, Mississippi John Hurt and Leo Kottke.

[rostasi]

Very nice addition of a cimbalom solo @ ca. 3 minutes

[rostasi]

[grindy]

Great take on czech folk music.

[Lisnaholic]

^ Yep, that's a fabulous piece of folk music grindy, thanks!
I also liked Chiomara's Jammin' in the Redwoods.

Originally Posted by rostasi

^ I used to have an album by Joseph Spence, but I never got into it, tbh. Thanks to Ry Cooder, I expected every Joseph Spence song to sound like this,



... so my JS solo album was a pretty disappointing purchase for me.
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I think Dance Hall Girls is a really nice song; kind of sad but with a decent pace all the same. I love The Duhks studio version, which really brings out it's melancholy best. That's not available YouTube, though. These guys do a pretty good version of the same song, but who they are I can't tell you:-